There doesn't seem to be much in the Fulltone OCD pedal.

Burstbucker · September 07, 2006, 09:11:38 PM

My local music store has just become an authorised Fulltone Distributer and they just got in the whole Fulltone effects line. I've been really curious about this OCD pedal since it came out and I finally got a chance to try one out for myself this afternoon.

I must say that I'm VERY impressed with what I heard! IMHO it totally lives up to all the hype, I really don't think that I've played an OD pedal this good yet and I've been through TONS of OD pedals in the last 5-6 years, so that's really saying something. And I was surprised to see that it's not all that expensive, $199.00 Canadian.

Anyway, I was just over at Fulltone's website and had a look at the insides of this OCD pedal and damn it all, it almost looks empty!
8^)

There just seems to be one opamp, a few caps and a few resistors under all that goop. Pretty impressive sound/performance from such a simple layout IMHO. I'd say that Fuller did an awesome job on this pedal, would you agree?

Here's a pic of the interior:
http://www.guitarplayer.com/pop-up.asp?storycode=4758&seq=2&type=P

jonathan perez · September 07, 2006, 09:21:38 PM

by itself, i didnt like it. i usually just kept it as an overdrive overdrive. for like lead boosts. but...it sounded WAAAY better through my JSX. it totally depends on the amp you use.

JHS · September 07, 2006, 09:44:14 PM

I posted some infos about the OCD some weeks ago (use JHS AND OCD w the search function).
We all know that Fuller is no electric genius. The OCD is a slightly modded VooDoo Lab OD w a bad treble cut control connected to the output pot (BTW 500k sound way better than the original 100k).

The 1N914 had been replaced w MOSFETS, the bias-devider and the gain-control is TS-like, chip is TL082 and the RC-Network before the pot is altered to (19k/33k via switch and 100n C).

A while ago I checked it out. To me the OD tone sounds like crap, it's way better as a booster but the OCD has a very artificial sound when used with a clean amp. As a booster for a crunching Marshall it's much better as long as the OCD is set clean.

I prefer my VL OD Klon which I use a lot, due to the fact that the VL OD has a very natural sound and don't soften the amp distortion as much as the OCD.

JHS

jonathan perez · September 07, 2006, 09:47:21 PM

no doubt, i just stick to my guns and use my Barber Burn Unit...Mr. Barber is a gent, so he gets 10 points!

with the OCD, it was just alot of gain or less gain. and it didnt clean up at all. it was muddy when driving an already driven amp.

the barber burn unit has way more tonal controls...plus he encourages IC Stacking. cool idea, though i havent done it yet. fuller just says "it is what it is. Period." so...you do, or you dont like it. for what i had it for, i liked it.

whoops, i just realized i made it seem like the OCD was a low gain pedal. no, its not. but i LOVE alot of gain...just found it to be too "fat", not enough high mids for my liking.

Ed G. · September 08, 2006, 12:23:28 AM

I tried the OCD through my super reverb. Granted, I didn't have it cranked, or maybe the SR is just not the amp for it, but it didn't sound that hip to me. Some people love it though, so it's got to have its uses.

lowstar · September 08, 2006, 04:16:35 AM

with bass guitar into a bass amp, it sounded really cool though.

cheers,
lowstar

markm · September 08, 2006, 07:15:03 AM

Quote from: Burstbucker on September 07, 2006, 09:11:38 PM
Anyway, I was just over at Fulltone's website and had a look at the insides of this OCD pedal and damn it all, it almost looks empty!
8^)

I don't know about that, looks like there's ALOT of "goop" in there to conceal the top-secret components

wampcat1 · September 08, 2006, 07:57:13 AM

Quote from: thebattleofmidway on September 07, 2006, 09:47:21 PM
no doubt, i just stick to my guns and use my Barber Burn Unit...Mr. Barber is a gent, so he gets 10 points!

with the OCD, it was just alot of gain or less gain. and it didnt clean up at all. it was muddy when driving an already driven amp.

the barber burn unit has way more tonal controls...plus he encourages IC Stacking. cool idea, though i havent done it yet. fuller just says "it is what it is. Period." so...you do, or you dont like it. for what i had it for, i liked it.

whoops, i just realized i made it seem like the OCD was a low gain pedal. no, its not. but i LOVE alot of gain...just found it to be too "fat", not enough high mids for my liking.

IMO, the barber pedals are freaking awesome and priced well too. Dave's a good guy too!

bw

JHS · September 08, 2006, 08:40:59 AM

I goop my FX-circuits too, with a hot glue gun.
Not for hiding something but to protect it against mechanical stress caused by vibration.

JHS

Melanhead · September 08, 2006, 09:21:24 AM

Tried one as well, actually bought it because of all the hype, brought it home and it didn't work that well with my boogie set slightly dirty ... so I brought it back ... A lot of people like 'em though ....

Mark Hammer · September 08, 2006, 10:25:25 AM

I tried one out during the spring, and while I didn't think it was gonna change the world, I thought it behaved admirably, and had a couple of personalities lurking in it. Some folks bitched about the price, but my reply was that it did the work of 2 or 3 pedals, so the price wasn't that farfetched for something that only took up one slot on your pedalboard and replaced a couple of things that might cost you $70-80 each.

If you think of it in those terms - i.e., cost effectiveness - rather than in terms of needing to be earth-shatteringly different to merit the price, it's not such a bad deal. Of course, the 2 or 3 personalities it has have to be ones you feel you'd like to live with, and as we all know taste in distortion sounds can be very varied.

Burstbucker · September 08, 2006, 04:17:10 PM

I should point out that I only tried out the OCD at music store levels so maybe I'd have a different opinion when cranking out the volume. BTW, I tried the OCD on the clean channel of a Traynor Blue50 combo amp, it did sound very nice from what I could tell. I A/B'ed the Clean Channel+OCD with the Traynor's dirty channel without OCD and the Clean Channel+OCD sounded just as good and very tube-like too. I wonder how the OCD might work with my Fender Twin Reverb.

FWIW, I used to have a Barber Direct Drive and an LTD and while they were very nice pedals I found that they had a very Tubescreamer-type character about them and just sounded a little bit fake, kinda like putting a JRC4558 blanket over your tone, YMMV though.

RDV · September 08, 2006, 04:17:49 PM

When I 1st heard about the thing and saw how many components it had I thought he'd just done another clone job copying the Crowther Hotcake but I guess I was off target.

RDV

markm · September 08, 2006, 05:39:56 PM

Quote from: Burstbucker on September 08, 2006, 04:17:10 PM
FWIW, I used to have a Barber Direct Drive and an LTD and while they were very nice pedals I found that they had a very Tubescreamer-type character about them and just sounded a little bit fake, kinda like putting a JRC4558 blanket over your tone, YMMV though.

Same here.
They were both nice pedals but, pretty "generic" to my ears.

comfortably_numb · September 08, 2006, 10:57:03 PM

I have the benefit of a super cool music shop guy who lets me bring my screw driver with me to the store when I come to try out new pedals. I opened up the OCD and it's actually on a dual layer PCB. So there's twice as much stuff in there than you can actually see in that photo. Someone mentioned mosfets, of which there are definitely two on the other side.

News:

There doesn't seem to be much in the Fulltone OCD pedal.